University of Gothenburg
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Ulla-Britt Wennerström

Affiliated to Education

Department of Sociology and Work
Science
Mail
ulla-britt.wennerstrom@socav.gu.se

About Ulla-Britt Wennerström

Presentation ULLA-BRITT WENNERSTRÖM has a PhD and is Senior Lecturer in the Department of Sociology at the University of Gothenburg, Sweden.

Ulla-Britt has wide-ranging experience of teaching social sciences in secondary schools as a high school teacher. She defended her doctoral thesis, The female experience of class mobility (Den kvinnliga klassresan), in 2003. The study was based on qualitative life-history interviews carried out with fourteen women born and brought up in working class families who had gone through higher education and professional careers in 19th century Swedish society and who now belonged to the middle or upper middle class. The study was inspired by Daniel Bertaux’s life history interview method and was based on critical realist thinking, Margaret Archer's theoretical development and Pierre Bourdieu's class theory.

Specialist Fields The research fields covered by her thesis are social inequality, social mobility, class and gender and life-history interview studies and these are also connected to her teaching in sociology.

Current research projects Subsequent to the public defence of her thesis, during 2005-2007 she conducted research in the field of housing in the Formas research project "Public housing and the local security" in a joint interdisciplinary study between the University of Gothenburg and Chalmers University of Technology architecture / planning.

The project will be completed in 2010 in an extensive research report for publication. Ulla-Britt has been working within the ongoing research study, "Evaluation of Crime Victim Support in Gothenburg" since 2008. This study is being conducted within a research team in the Department of Social Work and is being implemented on behalf of Gothenburg municipality.

It is being funded in part by the Swedish Criminal Victim Compensation and Support Authority (Brottsoffermyndigheten). This comprehensive study consists of four phases of research and is expected to be concluded in a final research report presented in spring 2010.

Teaching and tutoring Ulla-Britt teaches several courses in sociology, social psychology, social studies and Teacher Training, including compulsory training (Lärarlyftet) for professional teachers in Gothenburg. She is responsible for courses in Teacher Training and in Social Psychology, and she has been involved in the development of several courses. She supervises student dissertations for Bachelor and Master's degrees, and for degrees in Teacher Training and Social Sciences.

Miscellaneous Since 2000 Ulla-Britt has been involved in the network and seminar group, critical realistic workshop, in the Department of Sociology in Gothenburg (www.kritiskrealism.se), as well as participating in an international sociological housing research network (European Network of Housing Research).

Selected publications Wennerström, Ulla-Britt (2003) Den kvinnliga klassresan (The female experience of class mobility). Göteborg Studies in Sociology, No. 19. Department of Sociology. University of Gothenburg.

Wennerström, Ulla-Britt (2009) Den kvinnliga klassresan – konstituerande möjligheter, motivation och hinder. (The female experience of Class Mobility – An analysis of constituent opportunities, motivation and obstacles). Tidskrift för genusvetenskap (Journal of Gender Studies), Theme: Class (3-4) p. 31-55.

Borelius, Ulf och Ulla-Britt Wennerström (2009) A New Gårdsten. A Case Study of a Swedish Municipal Housing Company. European Journal of Housing Policy, 9 (2) s. 223-239.